Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

[Lon Moer]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

It may be a while before I really go through my pics. Too many other projects. But here are a few I could not resist processing while I was getting something else from the folder.

That P-63 has a noticeably smaller front profile to the Mustangs!

[CubersWrist]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

That P-63 has a noticeably smaller front profile to the Mustangs!

I see only mustangs?

I took a picture of the P-63 wing section. Man is it FAT!
No wonder they would cut the wings down so much for racing in Cleveland.
Also the ailerons go from half span to the tip and the wingspan itself seemed larger than a 51.


And while I'm at it, here's some cell phone pictures I took from the pit

Side by side comparison of Miss A's scoop to a stock scoop.

Spray bars for Dreadnought, Sawbones, and Full Noise

The arm through the tent was just something odd. No introduction, no explanation, just an arm sticking through the tent for a couple minutes...

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Took the long way home just getting to my shots seriously... I'll post a few, likely, one at a time as I find them..

There was REALLY tight competition in the Biplanes on Sunday AM!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

It may be a while before I really go through my pics. Too many other projects. But here are a few I could not resist processing while I was getting something else from the folder.

Very nice work young man!!!

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

I second that! Love that 3 ship shot with Dread, and the 5 ship with the Vance Mustang. Dynamic and exciting stuff...

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

It may be a while before I really go through my pics. Too many other projects. But here are a few I could not resist processing while I was getting something else from the folder.

Very nice work young man!!!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Took the long way home just getting to my shots seriously... I'll post a few, likely, one at a time as I find them..

There was REALLY tight competition in the Biplanes on Sunday AM!

[W J Pearce]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Some more...

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

I was out grabbing leftover Subway Wrap from breakfast/lunch when this came by, really reminded me of the old days when if you were listening on the right freq, you would sometimes hear these flybys being set up.... well, on the fly.. LOL! Airplane would call race control, tell them they were available for flyby if requested, usually a loiter followed by the flyby of whatever it was.. PLEASE tell me I'm not imagining this!!! LOL, getting old but I know of you younger guys will remember too..

PS... NICE WORK!

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Damn, Bill. How do you do that! I thought you had old outmoded equipment and didn't use much photoshop! How do you get these to look like this?
Neal

[W J Pearce]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Wayne - I remember a time when anything heavy moving anywhere around Reno would come on by and make a pass. I remember it being exciting as you truly never knew what you were going to see that day: C-5, C-141, SR-71, F-117, Thunderbirds, Blue Angles, B-17, John Travolta, etc. Of course, maybe I remember it better than it was.

Neal - Old camera broke at Reno last year. I bought some new equipment, which was first used as Oshkosh. We always say that it is the photographer and not the equipment, but I’ll be damned if it is not a hell of a lot easier to “make” photos with the new equipment. I am still getting used to it; after 15 years with the old stuff, change can take a while.

Photoshop work was cropping/resizing, adjusting the exposure/brightness (Oshkosh was a little over-exposed and Reno was a little under-exposed, but, I think I know where I need to be), and a touch of sharpening. No color correction. Every image with the old camera needed a different amount of time-consuming color correction and contrast adjustment. Seriously, the camera/lens is doing the heavy-lifting, I’m just trying to be steady (f/8 and be there). Maybe I should use the “P” mode…. It means “Professional,” right?

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

" (f/8 and be there). Maybe I should use the “P” mode…. It means “Professional,” right? "

LOL.

I really was wondering about this stuff you're posting this year. You've always had a good eye, but this year's stuff clearly has upped your game considerably. The equipment these days is so stunningly good that an awful lot of younger "photographers" are skipping the steps of really seeing, and of thinking about what they're doing. Several of you younger guys here on aafo are really impressing me, and being the jaded old pro I am I'm not that easy to impress.

Thanks for posting such lovely stuff.

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

"... The equipment these days is so stunningly good that an awful lot of younger "photographers" are skipping the steps of really seeing, and of thinking about what they're doing. Several of you younger guys here on aafo are really impressing me, and being the jaded old pro I am I'm not that easy to impress.

Neal

I'll bite. Neal, I really do value your opinion and feedback, so I'm curious which of these groups I fall in, the ones skipping steps or the ones getting it right? (Hopefully the latter.) I'm always looking to improve. I wasn't that impressed with most of my stuff from last year (pretty good static stuff, but the pylon stuff was a bit disappointing). This year it seems I got my stuff together and shot some pretty good stuff overall. (I've only looked at about 10% of it at this point)
I had an interesting wake up when I shot Oshkosh this year in that trying to process stuff on a substandard monitor really isn't ideal. I got to see what I was shooting on a 4k monitor, and, well, lets just say I've spent some $ on a new monitor and graphics card (NEC 4K with 97% Adobe RGB color gamut). Just last night I was going through Oshkosh stuff and was looking at pic that I was going to throw out on my old monitor, on the new one and seeing a totally different picture. Things that looked soft, weren't actually soft, they were just not able to be seen clearly on a cheap low resolution monitor. (The sooner I get this Oshkosh stuff out of the way, the sooner I can get onto doing the Reno stuff, on the good computer with the good monitor, not just the low res monitor on my old laptop.)

I think I sort of fall in the old school realm in that I still use lens filters, and try to get the pic as close to right on the camera as I can. I'm not one for creating a composite image. A full prop disk on Dreadnought, yeah, I tried and succeeded in shooting it at 1/60, 500mm, or even slower with a couple other shots. They weren't digitally created, no prop disks from another shot were interchanged, I actually shot the pic. (While some composite images can be cool, they really bug me when they are paraded as a real shot.)

Bill, you shot some amazing stuff. Please keep posting what you got, because you shot some awesome stuff.

Will

[wingman]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Will -- I have few issues with where you're going with your photography. Your static stuff and ramp work is generally stunning, and beautifully processed. You haven't shown much pylon stuff -- I have real hopes for that. I do think you may be going farther than I would in pursuit of the perfect prop circle, and with the panning at slow shutter speeds. It's not a direction I personally would be going so strongly. This is largely personal bias on my part and I fully recognise that I'm an outlier in not caring much about prop blur. I feel that if I get the pilot's eyes right that nobody will ever notice whether the prop is semi blurred at 1/400 of a second. My personal bias is toward ultimate sharpness, and toward closeup clarity. That's part of why I'm responding so strongly toward some of Bill's stuff. His takeoff shots and some of the headon pylon group stuff has a sharpness, detail, and clarity of vision that I really respond to on a personal level. In looking at the field stuff of yours I personally quickly tire of the pan blur effect -- for me personally it quickly begins to distract from the aircraft themselves. There are types of shots that I feel in my own work need to be used sparingly -- that have a powerful effect as one shot in a portfolio of 20 but lose their power if they are 7 shots in a portfolio of 20. As well, shooting at 1/30 of a second makes it REALLY hard to get that last 5% of sharpness that makes a photograph sing to me. Years back there was a huge flurry of love for star filters to pop star effects out of specular highlights. It was a really cool effect when you first saw it, but for me very quickly got tiresome. And there really is a difference between 96% sharp and flawlessly sharp. I've poked through a lot of my archives this summer and I'm really seeing the difference. I'm just not real steady and it often shows, but when the stars line up the result is just different.

So I love most of what you're doing, and it's a pleasure to see you developing your skills and developing a style. I personally would like to see more closer up "in your face" Victor Archer kinds of work, but that again is personal bias on my part. Everybody has to develop their own style, and my biases are mine. There is no "correct" way to do or to see any of this. Each artist has his or her own journey. It's gonna be fun watching your journey -- you are bright, and in good control of your tools. You seem to be having fun and you're willing to work and think. That's what matters. No point in doing all this work if you just fall into ruts and keep doing the same thing for years.


I hope you're good with these comments -- you wanted to know my thoughts. I'm not a hero worshipper or a polisher, so if you ask you're going to get what I really think. You are definitely one who's getting it right so far.

A really high end monitor is crucial in doing all this. You need to KNOW what you are getting to judge whether you are doing what you think you're doing. I love my big NEC -- I literally could not do what I do without it.

Neal

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Reno 2018 Photo thread. Post what you shot, the more the better.

Neal,
Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for the compliments on my static and ramp pics. One of the reasons I've gone off the deep end with the slow shutter speeds is to produce something different. With somewhat few choices in backgrounds, and shooting locations at Reno, I want to make my shots stand out in a big pond of really good pics. I want to convey the sense of speed and motion. Does that always translate to an awesome shot even if its technically very good? No, but it will likely be eye catching. To be honest, the shots of "On Eagles Wings" I shot from 5 at 1/40 are cool, there is something about them I don't like. (I can't put my finger on what it is however.) I hear what you are saying about shooting a faster shutter speed for sharpness and better closeup work. Still, I have a bunch of those I shot of the IF1 and biplanes, (I haven't looked to see if they are good, many are silhouette shots because I was on the wrong pylon for the time of day.) I do have a few shots from the Sport class I shot fairly slow, and they are pretty sharp (I can see Andrew Findley has a checklist on his knee that appears to have a vent blowing on it because the paper is moving. I can see the lines on the paper, but I can't read it) Another reason I work to shoot slow is because it forces me to focus on taking the pic. At faster speeds, I get lazy and bored. (A big reason I don't shoot much of the jet races. Set the shutter speed fast, remove brain, fire away. Its hard not to get a sharp pic, but it will look like everyone else's. ) I do try to capture multiple planes in the frame when I can, little details like prop lightning if it can be seen, the sun coming through a canopy and hitting the wing, pilots facial expressions (I've got an awesome shot of one of the IF1 guys coming off pylon 1 toward 2 and I can see where he is looking. I might copy and crop the hell out of it just to get the guys facial expression) I really can't wait till I can get my Oshkosh stuff finished so I can process my Reno stuff on a real computer. The stuff I've posted here are literally quick semi-random picks off the cards. I think I'm going to need another couple months before I get to the Reno stuff however.


This is the shot that I can almost read the checklist on Andrew's knee board.


I fed a lot of planes to pylons this year...


Will